Man Arrested After Stabbing Neighbor During Fight Inside Worcester Apartment

Monday, May 22, 2017
GoLocalWorcester News Team

A man was arrested after stabbing his neighbor with a fork during a fight inside a Richards Street apartment early Sunday morning. 

Rashaan Hazard is charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, strangulation, intimidation of a witness, assault with a dangerous weapon, and resisting arrest.

 He will be arraigned on Monday in the Worcester District Court.

The Incident 

On Sunday May 21 at about 1:55 a.m., Worcester police were sent to Richards St for a report of an assault and battery that took place. Upon arrival, officers spoke with the victim. The victim was bleeding from his hand and arm, and his clothes were torn. He stated that he was just attacked by Rashaan Hazard, a forty-year old man who lives in a separate apartment of his building, which is a rooming house with many tenants.

The victim said that Hazard, who he said he barely knows, confronted him in the common area of their building. Hazard approached him in a threatening manner and began verbally berating him. The victim left the area to calm things down. The victim came back to use the kitchen in the common area, and Hazard was still very confrontational. He began poking the victim in the chest and stomach with a fork. The victim tried to take the fork away, and Hazard bit him in the left arm. The responding officer reported that the bite area was swollen to nearly the size of a baseball and was blue. As the victim tried to run away, Hazard came behind him and placed him in a rear-naked choke. The victim thought that he was going to be choked unconscious, but he escaped the choke and ran away to call police. Officers called for an ambulance to treat the victim, who was brought to the hospital.

Officers went to Mr. Hazard’s apartment to get his side of the story. When they knocked on the door, he opened the door with a baseball bat in his hands. He raised the bat above his head and began swinging it at the officers and screaming at them. The officers stepped back, drew their batons, and ordered him to drop the bat. Hazard refused to drop the bat, so an officer administered a one-second burst from his OC spray to Hazard’s chest and face area. A few seconds later, Hazard dropped the bat and put his hands in the air. Officers moved in and placed him under arrest. They called for an ambulance for Hazard, who was treated by medics then transported by police to the cell room.